Questions
by sweetlilsunshine
Summary: He held her slim black phone in his hand, his brown eyes looking at her as she shot from her room, completely unaware of his presence. He seemed to decide on something for a minute before slowly strolling away with a shrug. "eh, she can get it later."
1. Chapter 1

_**a/n: Reviews would be welcome.**_

_**D: I do not own Bleach copyrights.**_

There seemed to be no distractions anymore. Not even the thrill of Karate could keep them out of her head. Tatsuki sighed from her spot on the steps, it wasn't like it was much of a thrill anyway. Ever since six months ago barely anything could hold her interest.

_sixth months_

Had it really been so long since they left? She felt her fists ball up at the thought. It had been during the last school year when she saw them last. More than half a year since when she screeched at Ichigo, more than half a year since she saw the spirit of Orihime. Ichigo and the others had all called in for their long absence, spouting lies about vacation and illness. But Orihime. . . Orihime had never called.

Tatsuki wiped away a few stray tears from her cheek, wiping her eyes on her uniform's sleeve. She remembered all to well why she had screamed like that at Ichigo. After seeing her, standing in the field as a ball passed through her, Tatsuki had been certain she was dead. She had run straight to Ichigo, hating the fact that he probably already knew. Hating that _he_ would know about _her_ best friend.

Back then she had been so terrified. She almost laughed when she thought of it now. Most people denied she even knew the meaning of the word, much less actually felt it for herself. But now . . . she didn't feel terrified now.

When Ichigo suddenly left something new had come to her mind. _She isn't dead_, she had thought, _why else would he leave so suddenly, why else than to rescue her. _A certain peace seemed to form in her when she thought these thoughts, a hope of some sort. It was comforting knowing Orihime would be protected, though she did not know what danger she was in.

A shrill beeping sound suddenly reached Tatsuki's sensitive ears, jolting her out of her thoughts. She grabbed the offending device almost violently, annoyed at the crude interruption.

"What!" She hissed into the tiny phone.

No shrill mother's voice, nor deep father's voice hissed back. Confused, Tatsuki frowned and looked at the phone, wondering if they (or she) had accidentally hung up. But instead of a "missed call" sign, other words floated across the screen. The phone clattered to the pavement as she stumbled to her feet, wide brown eyes scanning her watch.

"Oh crap!" She yelped, slinging her bag over her shoulder and taking off in one simultaneous movement.

"Oh crap, oh crap, OH CRAP!" she continued to yell as she took off down the street

Mere moments later a slender hand reached down and plucked the phone from the ground. Brown eyes followed her retreating figure as she faded out of sight.

"Whatever." He murmured, sliding the phone into his pocket.

_**Sorry for such a short chapter I promise I will write again as soon as I can.**_

_**If you have any questions, suggestions, like the story so far, or just want to talk please review.**_

_**I appreciate your help!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**a/n: please tell me what you think! It could be good or bad, I just want to get better!**_

_**D: I do not own Bleach copyrights.**_

"Where _is_ it?!" Tatsuki hissed as she tossed yet another shirt aside, searching it's pockets thoroughly before depositing it on the floor. Turning to her dresser she began to tear through the drawers, dumping their contents next to the rest of her abandoned clothing.

"Where the heck did it go?!"

Once again she attacked the phone on her desk, all but ripping it out of the wall as she punched in the numbers. Again she listened, again she heard nothing. With an exasperated sigh Tatsuki flung herself face-down onto her bed, screaming into her pillow with frustration.

After several minutes of pillow-screaming Tatsuki suddenly jumped off her bed, an exited smile sprawled across her face. In a frenzy she yanked her jacket out of the messy pile before her, pulling it on as she bolted for the door.

* * *

He held her slim black phone in his hand, his brown eyes looking at her as she shot from her room, completely unaware of his presence. He seemed to decide on something for a minute before slowly following her with a shrug. "eh, she has to get it sometime."

* * *

Tatsuki stared at the empty steps like they had just killed her first child. She had been 100% certain that she had left it here. Heck, she even remembered dropping it when the alarm went off. She had been in such a hurry to get to the tournament that she had forgotten all about. But now, now that she _finally_ remembered it, it wasn't here.

Oh irony of all ironies, it wasn't here.

Plopping down on the steps, Tatsuki sighed. Why couldn't everything be easy? Wouldn't it be so much easier if everything did what was expected of it? Wouldn't it be so much easier if a certain little black phone remained where she had dropped it? But no, sadly life _wasn't_ easy. In fact, it seemed to go out of it's way just to spite you. And now she had lost a phone that had quite possibly been the most expensive piece of equipment she ever owned. Man, she _really _hated life sometimes.

The sound of footsteps suddenly pounded in Tatsuki's ears. Not ordinary footsteps though, or her head would never have lifted as easily. This sound was more faded, there but not there. This was a sound she hadn't heard in a long time.

_Souls_

Tatsuki's eyes widened as three children raced past her, no . . . _through _her, a look of pure terror written on each cherub face. With a startled gasp Tatsuki instinctively lunged to her feet, beginning to run after them before screeching to a halt. Their terrified expressions wafted through her mind as she slowly turned around, her heart now thundering in her ribs. The children had been so scared, _why?_

The answer, now in front of her, bored into her brown eyes with it's own . To be truthful, that's all she could really see, the eyes. At first, it's grotesque, misshapen body had been their, although it had been faint. But now, now as the sun's last rays dimmed into dusk, all that remained were the two fiery eyes, locked on her.

"_Why have you disturbed my meal?"_

Tatsuki shuddered, this voice was one she had never heard before, soul and human alike. Like it was being spoken directly into her thoughts, his voice made it impossible to think of anything else.

"_Well? Are you going to answer me?" _With a mind of their own, Tatsuki's eyes dragged back over to him, to the . . . the _creature_ before her.

The orbs moved side to side in the air, like he was shaking his head, seemingly displeased with something she had, or _hadn't _done.

"_Oh well," _He said with a ghostly chuckle. _"You'll have to do, though I do regret never getting a taste of those other three." _His laugh was louder this time, almost to the point of hurting her ears. _"Don't get me wrong though, you do smell quite. . . succulent. I bet you'll taste wonderful."_

Tatsuki hadn't realized it before but she was shivering, no, shaking. She couldn't remember ever being this afraid before, she couldn't even move. What a time to get paralyzed with fear, when the eyes of the predator got closer and closer with each breath you took. When it became too much, when she couldn't stand it any more, Tatsuki closed her eyes, so as not to see the end that the creature so casually hinted at.

She held them tight for what seemed like a lifetime, waiting for one of the passing seconds to carry death to her. But it never came. Death never came. Still shaking, Tatsuki slowly opened her eyes, only to reveal one more guest to their little _party. _

He looked familiar, like any other high school boy she had ever seen throughout her lifetime. He was tall, blond and had an extremely bored look on his face. But their were two more facts about him that she had never before seen in a regular boy.

This boy was a soul, and this boy had a sword.

His voice echoed out to her ears, sounding out in a bored tone.

"Weren't you ever told how to treat a lady?" The boy slowly aimed his sword at the creature.

"_She's mine!"_ The creature hissed, it's red eyes narrowing at the boy. The boy raised his hand and cupped it around his ear.

"What was that? I didn't hear you." The boy slowly moved forward, his sword ready at his side.

"_I said she-" _In one swift movement the boy sent his sword slicing right between those ember eyes.

"Wrong answer"


	3. Chapter 3

_**a/n: Thanks for the reviews everyone! Tell your friends about this, I'm going to try to get more than one review a chapter. Remember to keep reviewing!**_

_**D: I do not own Bleach copyrights.**_

Tatsuki balanced the little black phone in her palm, looking at it but not looking at it, her thoughts still stuck in the events that had happened but an hour ago. It had all been like a fairy tale, with a princess, a dragon, and a knight. Only this fairy tale was different from the ones you read about in children books. This one was _real._ This fairy tale had actually happened, it had been no dream, Tatsuki was _there._

No, there were other differences between her story and the make-believe. Most stories were romantic, they had a happy ending. Her knight had _walked away_, leaving her phone behind him on the phone. Was that the whole reason he had showed up? To return the annoying little device?

Tatsuki gulped. What if she had never lost it? Would she be. . . be _dead_ by now.

A soft buzzing suddenly cut through her thoughts, forcing Tatsuki to look down at the offending device. An annoyed expression fluttered across her features though it didn't stay for very long, as it quickly turned into a frown.

When had she switched it to silent?

With the same puzzled frown Tatsuki read the words that flashed onto the screen, only to receive a shock from what it said. For across the screen were eight words, '_Hollow spirit energy 3 kilometers to the east'. _Tatsuki groaned_, _This wasn't her phone. . .

And what the heck was a hollow?

* * *

With a sigh, the boy pulled the ringing device from his pocket. Annoyed that it had somehow been switched to a louder noise. It was probably that Urahara's doing, as it was he who had given him the stupid thing in the first place. "There will be no one else to protect us" he had said giving the little thing to him, "The Visoreds must do their part. So he had taken it, how badly he wished he had refused. Now he looked at the little script flashing across the device, his eyes widening as he read.

This was _not _the spirit energy detector.

His eyes widened more as he realized _exactly_ where it was. God! How many times was he going to have to follow that girl!

* * *

_**a/n: sorry this chapter's so short, it's kind of a filler chapter. So you won't get so confused over the next chapter. I promise it will be longer.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**a/n: sorry it's been so long everybody! I'm really sorry for the wait, so as a sort of repentance gift I tried to make this chapter fairly long. Anyway, please review, I lurv them! :3**_

Somehow Tatsuki felt extremely stupid as she walked through the dimly lit streets, the slim black device held firmly in her right hand. At first it had seemed exactly what she do, follow the instructions on the little buzzing thing until it lead her to it's owner. It was only later, when . . . well, when the phone _stopped_ beeping, that her plan really came crashing down on her.

Now she was alone, lost in an unknown part of town, cold, hungry, and most of all. . . extremely pissed off at a certain blond spirit boy who she now blamed this entire adventure on, after all, it was _his _phone she was holding. With a sudden burst of energy, Tatsuki started to power-walk down the empty side-walk, knowing for a fact that she probably was going the wrong way. Even so, as the thought crossed her mind Tatsuki found herself going even faster than she was before, for even if she didn't know where she was going, she was going _somewhere,_ and that somewhere might have a phone, this one apparently, was dead.

Well, at least she _was_ going somewhere before a fairly large rock jumped under her foot.

With a muffled curse, Tatsuki found herself doing a sort of half summer-salt as she cascaded forward, flinging her arms out in front of her to soften the sure to be painful fall. But, strangely her arms never did hit the pavement, instead they seemed to hit a very solid and a very _warm_ wall. Startled, Tatsuki tried to leap away, only to find that she could barely move due to a lean, muscular arm wrapped around her waist, holding her in a position where she was pressed up to an unknown chest, unable to see the face of her attacker.

Now more pissed-off than anything else, Tatsuki tried to reach her free hand to slap her restrictor clean in the face, only to realize that, once again, she was powerless to do so due to the fact that that arm too was also being held down. Muffling a curse, Tatsuki looked down to her other arm, trying to pry that one too from this guy(it had to be a guy)'s freakishly strong grip, this too failing miserably. Suddenly, Tatsuki realized something, _this guy was holding her hand_. She felt her face slowly turn an full out Christmas red as she processed the thought. Had she somehow stumbled into a demented pervert who was using her to for fill his fantasies of having a girl-friend?

But then she felt his fingers slowly pry her fingers open. Somehow, this actually cheered Tatsuki up quite a bit, for suddenly she remembered exactly what she held in that hand. . . This guy was only trying to rob her, not harass or molest in any way, well. . . at least not at the moment that was. But then. . . As the realization actually began to sink in Tatsuki found herself getting pissed off all over again. This guy was going to _rob _her, that phone wasn't even hers! Somehow, she really didn't want to disappoint the real owner of the phone, after all, he had a sword. . .

Like Tigger on happy pills, an idea suddenly sprung itself into Tatsuki's head, ricocheting around the inside of her skull as she began to grin. Why wouldn't she grin? After all, she was getting really sick of this guy and any idea that might bring him pain was fine with her. Leaning back as far as she could, Tatsuki brought her leg back and prepared to kick. . .

The movement didn't last long though, for soon the other guy too brought up his knee to block her assault on his. . . more private possessions. This move however resulted in both of them toppling forward, Tatsuki landing directly on top of her attacker. With a startled gasp, Tatsuki took in the now visible face of this attacker, the face of a handsome, blond, and spirit boy.

"Y-You!" Tatsuki stuttered, hardly believing her eyes. "It's been you the whole damn time!"

The boy blinked for a moment, looking up at her as if she were some rather strange creature at a freak show. Tatsuki felt extremely close to shaking him into talking as she watched him just sit there, sit there and _stare._

"Well!" She all but screamed, her face once again turning a neon shade of red, though this time it was more out of anger than embarrasment.

Still the boy just sat there, sat there and gave here that damn inquiring look. Furious, Tatsuki brought her hand back to slap the words into his. . .

"Hmm. . . You can see me?" He asked in a quiet but curious voice, causing Tatsuki's hand to freeze as she mulled over his words.

A smart remark instantly formed in the back of her head but Tatsuki pushed it back. Of course she had known all along that this boy was a spirit and that people didn't usually see them. But, how the hell did he know that! From what she knew of spirits was that they _thought _they could be seen and usually got pissed off when no one responded to their pleas for attention. But this guy. . . this guy had just _assumed_ that she was blind to him. There was no way in hell that he was a new spirit. Just how old was this guy?

"Well?" The boy asked in an annoyingly innocent tone, obviously repeating her words just to annoy her. Tatsuki felt fer fist clench a little at the word, Damn. . . it was working.

"Yeah," Tatsuki finally let out in a rather biting tone, "I can see you."

"Well that settles that." He said matter-of-factly as he shoved her off him and got to his feet, offering a helping hand to Tatsuki once he had dusted the grime of the street off of himself. Tatsuki promptly ignored the hand and rose of her own accord.

"Now," He said outstretching his hand towards her, with an obviously fake smile, "May I have my phone back?"

"No way in hell!" Tatsuki yelled in an extremely pissed-off way, "You think I would just _give_ it backafter allthis?"

The boy rubbed the back of his head, clearly not expecting this turn of events.

"Uh. . . Yes?"

Tatsuki gave him an incredulous glare. "No."

"Ugh, you're just as bossy as Hiyori." He sighed in defeat,"Is there anything in particular that you want to know?"

Tatsuki examined him for a moment, searching for any signs of a lie on his face before giving in with a sigh.

"For starters, Yesterday, What was that thing?" The boy seemed to stiffen as those words left her lips, his skin turning a tiny bit paler as he began to play with his hair once more.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said rather stubbornly, his tone giving her the impression of a five year old sticking out their tongue.

"It's not that hard of a question you know." Tatsuki said with a very exasperated voice, " And to add on to it, where exactly did you get a sword?"

"Um. . . Toy's R Us?"

"Oh for the love of frickin hell!" Tatsuki screamed at him, her nerves finally snapped, "Tell me or I tell everyone that you practically raped me in the street!"

A brief flash of fear flashed across his face before he quickly subdued it.

"Ok fine, I'll tell you! Just don't be surprised if the other Visoreds kill me by Sunrise." He said rather bleakly.

"Visoreds? What the hell are you talking about?" Tatsuki asked, still pissed off at the blond boy before her.

"I said I'd tell you didn't I? I'm going to do it in addiction clinic style though, just to bug you!" He said, adding a cheery smile at the last part.

Tatsuki gave him an expected look, beckoning him to go on.

The boy cleared his throat with a series of dramatic coughs before he finally began his story:

"My name is Shinji Hirako, I'm several thousand years old and I'm recovering from being a Soul Reaper. . ."


	5. Chapter 5

_**a/n: now I know I said I was going to rewrite this story along with several others; however I have decided against it. Several people have told me that this story is good enough as is so I won't ruin it for them. So read, review, and enjoy this latest chapter. Btw, I'm updating all my stories as a sort of test; meaning that I will be deleting all of those that don't get reviews. The ones that do get reviews I will update every few days though. So if you like them then don't be afraid to comment**_

_**D: I do not own any Bleach copyrights.  
**_

After his long tale had come to a halt, a silence pregnant with a thick silence rushed in to fill the void. The blonde boy, or Shinji, as he had revealed himself to be, shifted nervously. He was obviously waiting for her to speak, say _something_ that showed that his words had registered. His story just seemed to amazing to put into words. Souls? She had already known about, heck she had been seeing them for years; but a whole _society_ of them? It all seemed too much to comprehend,especially the parts at which he had described just what this afterlife was like. It almost sparked an eerie sense of doom in her, thinking about it.

She had thought that if there _was_ a heaven, then it would be a lot better than his stories had depicted. His tales of death, destruction, mutations, betrayal and insanity rivaled violently with what she had been taught to think of as the qualities of an afterlife. Where were the singing and choirs of angels? These soldiers, these _soul reapers_ sounded like an army of pure military domination to her. Only the ones untainted allowed to live, the ones mutated by that mad captain, those Visoreds, condemned to die? Maybe it was through the way the blonde had portrayed his story but she suddenly found herself resentful towards these people. What would you have to be like she wondered, to give the death sentence to people who had no choice in their crime.

A sharp, surprised laugh bubbled out of her as a sudden realization came to mind, causing the blonde boy to jump sharply; though she hardly noticed. Those few times she had seen Ichigo, dressed all in black and weaving that gigantic cleaver of a sword, she had never fully understood what had happened to the fiery red head. Even when she had met that strange friend of his with Keigo and Mizuiro, and this Urahara had told her Ichigo was going to rescue Orihime. She hadn't cared who Ichigo had turned into then, only that he had gone to rescue her friend from what truly sounded like hell. Was he one of them then? A soul reaper? She spared another laugh as she pondered the thought. If so, then there was no way he would fail or get himself killed. These all powerful soul warriors sounded like they could get anything accomplished.

A frustrated huff dragged her from her thoughts suddenly, revealing to her for the first time the glare that Shinji had been leveling her way. How long had he been keeping _that_ up, she wondered? Seeing that she was now paying attention to him, the blond headed soul, or Visored as he had called himself, opened his mouth to talk; preparing to say what she hoped would be an explanation for his angry expression.

"So she comes back to the world of the living I see." He scoffed, still looking icy. "I was beginning to wonder if you were finding more of my story to laugh at." Realization dawned on her, had she laughed out loud earlier? Was that why he looked so peeved? "Honestly, if you didn't believe me you could have just laughed during the first hour or so," he scoffed, "It would have saved me quite a bit of time."

He turned away with a flourish and walked away; Tatsuki quickly following in step behind him. Even though he looked quite annoyed, he didn't break out into super speed, a trait he had mate quite clear was possessed by him and his kind; though he did look like he was on the verge of it.

"Get a grip already," She seethed, getting equally angry with his theatrics, "I laughed for my own reasons, nothing to do with your stupid story."

"So you think it's stupid do you?" He began rather heatedly, "I knew you thought I was full of bull shi-"

Tatsuki cut him off before he could finish, "And who says I do?" She almost mad, she knew she shouldn't get so mad but she couldn't help it; this guy was pushing all of her buttons like he had been made for the task, it pissed her off. "I believed your story smart ass, hell it's the only thing that makes sense these days anyway." She paused for a minute, "That laugh was _because_ I believed in it actually."

The blonde's temper seemed to have died down some in her rampage; bringing her own down gradually with it. "_Because_ of it?" he mused bitterly, "You _laughed_ because I told you I was a mutant spirit warrior forbidden from his home because of the sick antics of a mad scientist?" He laughed a little himself at this, though it was short and bitter. "Some sense of humor you have there."

"It was because of a guy named Ichigo actually," Her words had acquired a rather dry tone, she didn't like where this guy was heading with his assumptions, "Worrying about him surviving or not suddenly seemed pointless considering what he could do, that's why I laughed."

Shinji raised an eyebrow in surprise, something that was in turn surprising to Tatsuki; she had expected him to continue on his rant. What had changed, had she said something that was strange to this guy? Pondering for a minute she wondered what could cause such an apparent hothead to drop his speech.

"You know Ichigo?" All sarcastic anger was gone, instead a milder brand of curiosity coated his words. "That explains a lot come to think of it, like how you could see me. That guy attracts the spiritually gifted by the hoards it seems." He smirked a bit at this, seemingly ignoring her own shock that he too had known her friend. "Your lucky we visoreds are hear actually, or the hollows would have eaten you a soon as Ichigo left."

Instantly Tatsuki zoned in on his words, he knew Ichigo had left? Did he possibly know more? Excitedly she threw some pent up questions at him, eyes wild as she awaited the answers eagerly. "Do you know where he went?" She pestered, "Or why Orihime was taken? Why did Sado and Uryu go to? Why where they long so long last year? Why was Rukia forgotten back then too? Why do those things, 'hollows' attack me? Why is it I can see those souls?"

She took a breath and Shinji jumped instantly into the silence, apparently terrified she would have more yet of these sudden questions. He looked a bit shell shocked actually, like this was the last thing he had expected from such a rough looking girl. "Er. . ." He gave her a look of apprehension, but his syllable had seemed to have calmed the tide of words. She nodded eagerly for him to continue.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Shinji was stuck, he didn't know what to do with this sudden onslaught of questions. This girl was smart, he'd give her that much. How did she come up with all these questions that were so damn hard to answer? He gulped as he looked down at this human girl, she looked so determined and fierce. Why hadn't he just took the damn energy detector when he had the chance. It would have been easy to just knock her down, swap their stupid devices and be on his way. He probably could have convinced Hagi to erase her memory later too if he wanted to.

Silently he cursed himself, he told himself that he had just wanted to be polite but he knew that this was not entirely true. His curiosity had gotten the better of him. He had allowed himself to ask his own questions, such as: Why doe she attract hollows? Why can she see me? How did she know about souls? It was because of these questions he had consented to telling her his story, thinking that perhaps she could give him some answers in return. Instead he got all these difficult questions and her knowing too much for him to ever successfully erase her memories. It was too late now anyways, the other visoreds would be pissed anyway.

She had opened her mouth again, perhaps to tell him to hurry up or perhaps to ask more questions; he never knew, a he had interrupted her before she had the chance. He was taking no chances.

"Alright, Alright" He aid passively, holding out one hand, "This is what happened"

And he preceded to tell her all that he could remember relating to those annoying questions.


	6. Chapter 6

_**a/n: It really makes me feel crappy when I get absolutely no reviews for a chapter, you guys know that? That's besides the point though, last time I said I would delete this story if I didn't get any reviews. I realize now that was pretty rude of me, I mean I hadn't been writing for months and then just come back and demand reviews. This time around however I will consider deleting this story if it gets no reviews, consider it a kind of trial run.**_

_**D: I do not own any Bleach copyrights.**_

Shinji sighed and rubbed the back of his head, not willing to take the steps that would take him into the Visored's warehouse. They would kill him if they found out he had told a human girl about them, and not just that either, he had also accidentally let her get a hold of his energy detector too. He winced at the thought of Hiyori in particular becoming aware of his situation. That was a kick he did _not_ need forever engraved in his backside.

"Yoohooo! _Shiiinji_!" A both familiar and annoying voice called out as its owner, Mashiro, stepped outside of the warehouse's barrier. "You're _back_!" She squealed as she launched herself at him, not even noticing his suddenly stiff demeanor, "About time too! I couldn't get away from Lisa _all _day, and she had those magazines out _again_!"

Shinji shifted nervously, cursing inwardly as a blush began to rise up his cheeks; it was rather common knowledge what Lisa's magazines detailed after all. Mashiro didn't seem to notice his discomfort at all however, and was quite content to babble on about her daily life for a good fifteen minutes before he stopped her.

"Look. . ." He cut in just as the green haired girl had started to describe her morning training, "I'm beat, you know, from all the _patrolling _I've been doing," He paused here and shot her a quick glance to see if she had caught his bluff, continuing when she only nodded sympathetically. "I'm going to rest a bit before I get some of my own training in."

"Oh all _right,_" Mashiro pouted, looking rather sad to not be able to finish her story, "Hiyori was looking for you by the way."

A cold chill ran up his spine as he froze. "H-hiyori? What does s-she want?" He was finding it very hard to speak coherently all of a sudden. His skin had begun to feel clammy and his head had developed a random fever, could she have discovered his mess-up _already_?

"I dunno," His fellow Viored shrugged, jumping up to do what he could only assume was a flash step, "It seemed pretty urgent though." She did a little click of her heels and sped out of sight.

Urgent? Shinji shivered as he placed his now shaking hand on the large warehouse doors. What would Hiyori of all people consider so important? Perhaps she only said such a thing so he would come running in at her words only to have her pound him into a bloody pulp. He suppressed another chill, yes, that sounded _exactly_ like something she would do.

But he was getting too worked up, there was no way she would have found out about his chat with the human girl _that_ fast. He pushed open the doors with that calming thought, she probably wanted to talk about something else, completely unrelated to him.

"You're _LATE_!"A pissed off voice screeched the moment he opened the door, accompanied moments later by a hard kick to the face. He barely had time to blink before the sheer force of the blow threw him back out of the house and into the nearby buildings.

"Hiyori," He coughed, getting up from the rubble unsteadily, "What the hell?"

"Your patrol ended two _hours_ ago," the little blonde practically growled, now standing directly over him. "That Kisuke told me something really important, but you weren't _here_!" She aimed another kick to his face but this one he dodged easily, now expecting her moves.

"Take it easy," He chided as he held his hands up in peace,inwardly hoping she that she was mad for an entirely different reason than what he guessed and not quite wanting to find out; though he soon asked anyway: "What's got you so riled up? Something about Urahara?"

"Yeah," she seethed before going off into a series of murderous sounding mumbles, most of them sounding like "stupid idiot," and "will never work."

"Yo Hiyori!" A much deeper voice cut in, stopping Hiyori in her ramblings and causing Shinji to look up. "Care informing the rest of us what happened? You've been throwing off hints all day." Kensei asked bluntly as he appeared behind them and turned to Shinji with an irritated look, "She's been refusing to tell us until _you_ came back."

"Yeah all right, whatever," The little blonde mumbled, before turning and using a flash step over to the warehouse. "But we can talk in here," she glanced around suspiciously, "the humans are beginning to stare."

Kensei shrugged and followed her in but Shinji looked around, curious of her words. Sure enough some of the shoppers from the busier streets had heard the explosion from his landing and wandered over. Naturally they couldn't see them so most of them were looking around aimless and confused, unsure as to what had happened. Still, Shinji found his eyes scan the crowd of humans, sub-consciously looking for the one who had been able to see him.

"Hey Hot Head!" Hiyori called, tearing him from his task, "You coming or what?"

As if he had been burned, he jumped like a boy caught red-handed. Why had he looked for her? She wasn't here, when they had parted he had been extra cautious so as not to be followed, already guessing what the strong willed and overly curious girl might try to do. But the question wasn't why she wasn't there, it was why he had cared. Had he perhaps _wanted_ her there? Why?

"_SHINJI!_" Hiyori was practically screaming now, _"GET YOUR FAT ASS OVER HERE!_"

"I'm coming, I'm coming." He looked over his shoulder, perhaps to double check but followed his fellows into the warehouse nonetheless.

"Finally," Hiyori breathed, annoyed; she was sitting over at the small table the other had set up for card and other stupid things. Now however it was being used as a meeting place. Everyone besides him was seated around it, all except Mashiro, having already left for her patrol. With a sigh he sat in an empty seat and motioned to Hiyori, signaling her that he was ready.

"I'm ready _pipsqueak_," he teased, enjoying her face turn red at the comment, "Now what's so important already."

For the first time since he had met here, Hiyori ignored the insult and plunged straight into her report. It must be _really_ significant then, he mused.

"It's that oath Kisuke," she started, "He thinks he has a way of saying Karakura from the Arrancars."

"He does?" Hagi asked, somewhat stunned, this was a puzzle they had been pondering for a while now after all. "Isn't that good news then?"

"It would be if it wasn't completely impossible," She stated, still looking miffed. "The fool actually thinks he can do it too." She seemed about ready to leave it at that but elaborated when she saw our confused faces.

"Kisuke wants to teleport Karakura away, send it _all_ to the Soul Society."


	7. Chapter 7

_**a/n: Sorry I took a little while longer than I planned,but thanks for the review finally anyway everybody! It's because of that that I decided to write some more on this any way.**_

_**D: I do not own ay Bleach copyrights.**_

_'Tet tat, tat tat tet, tet tat tat tet'_

"What are you doing? Writing a song or something?"Mizuiro asked innocently, causing Tatsuki to jump violently as he appeared mere inches behind her. She tried to suppress her irritation as the pencil she had been tapping against the desk flew out of her reach and over to the other side of the room. Her temper raged at the blackhaired boy but she pushed it back forcefully. More than anything she knew that Mizuiro didn't deserve the force of her wrath, as he had just been trying to be friendly; the boy had no idea what thoughts he was interrupting after all.

"Something like that," She grinned halfheartedly, trying her best to adopt that pseudo happiness she had created around the time that Orihime and the others had disappeared.

"Oooh," Keigo suddenly piped in, popping out from behind Mizuiro, "A _band_? Can I join? _Pleeeasse?" _His whiny voice was making it surprisingly difficult to keep up her poker face, was Keigo usually this annoying? She wondered vaguely as the brunette continued to rage about how they were leaving him out _again_.

"I never said _band _Mr. Asano," Mizuiro chided calmly, his sly smile carefully masked by formal expression. "I merely asked Tatsuki why she was spacing out," He paused and hot her a sly smile, "_Mr. Asano."_ She couldn't help but shoot one back, there was no doubt that this kid knew that he was pushing the other boy's buttons. "And who says we leave you out? You're the one who's always going off about how you're too cool to hang out with the rest of us," Mizuiro continued before pausing again, a mischievous look dancing in his eyes. "Mr. Asano."

"Waaah! Why so_ formal_?" Keigo cried, completely oblivious to his friend's sly humor, never even realizing that there was a joke behind it all. Still, the enthusiasm with which he spoke was beginning to make it difficult for Tatsuki to hide the secretive grins. Mizuiro caught her eye and winked, causing Tatuki to realize with a start that _she _was behind all of this teasing. Her friend had seen her absentminded contemplation and was trying to cheer her up. Even now while Keigo raved about all of his friends leaving him, Mizuiro stole to the other side of the room and retrieved her pencil; he had slid it back into her hand before Keigo had even noticed he was gone. There was no hiding it this time, she smiled a very watery smile at him, finding herself thanking whoever was out there that she had been given friends.

"Not _you _too Tatsuki!" Keigo cried despairingly, whoops, he had seen the grin.

"It's not that Keig-AHHH!" Chizuru had chosen that particular moment to glomp her in a chest foddling hug. With one powerful strike, Tatsuki had launched her across the room and was now marching towards her, face scarlet with rage and all grins forgotten. Both Keigo and Mizuiro seemed to stunned with the sudden change to speak. "What the hell was _that _for?"

"I was reminiscing," The proud lesbian stated bitterly as she got up and brushed herself off, "I miss Orihime, _she_ never punched me, plus she had a larger chest."

"Uh, Chizuru, maybe that isn't the best thing to bring up," Mizuiro cut in softly, seeing her face darken further. Both boys had paled noticeably when her friend was brought up, it was well known as a tender subject for her.

"Why?" The red head asked, completely oblivious as she reached over to pat Tatsuki's shoulder in what she must have thought was a consoling manner. "Having a big chest is great an all, but it's nothing to get upset about."

Tatsuki's fist were clenching, her anger had gone from a 5 to a 100 in a span of five minutes. She knew it was unreasonable fury, she knew that she shouldn't be mad; but somehow the mention of Orihime had made her want to pummel Chizuru. She needed to force all of her frustrations onto her, to make her understand why she was so furious.

Keigo's gentle hand pulled her away from the other girl with a soft pressure. Mizuiro followed closely behind them in what she knew was an effort to stop her from tearing away and barreling back to the blooming fight. "We're going to go outside for a bit," Mizuiro called over his shoulder as the confused lesbian stared after them.

"Eh? It's not even lunch yet."

"We'll be back," He replied hastily, all but shoving their sometimes violent friend out the door.

Tatsuki whirled around to snap something nasty but stopped dead as something caught her eye. It was very brief but she could of sworn that a flash of gold had appeared in the window. Barely registering her friends' worried glances, she broke away from them and went to investigate. They were on the third floor so it was unlikely it was anything more than a bird, nonetheless, she was suspicious.

A figure seemed to be floating right outside the glass, not even jumping as the girl be had been staring at stared back. All the color drained from her face, she recognized that blond hair.

"Uh, what's going on?" Keigo and Mizuiro had come up right behind her, both blatantly worried. Mizuiro looked out the window questioningly but Keigo's eyes had become very wide. Instantly he began to stammer out sentences that sounded like "whoisthatguy!whyishefloating!shouldwecallsomeone!AHHH!" Tatsuki sighed with exasperation, she had forgotten Keigo could see souls as well. Though from what he had told her, a bald man that now sounded suspiciously like these _soul reapers_ had once stayed at his house. Maybe that was why he was so freaked now, from the sound of it, these people could cause trauma.

Shinji raised an eyebrow as the brunette had a meltdown in the corner. He looked mildly amazed at how many people could see him, actually, she wondered if he would blame Ichigo's friendship on this anomaly again, he had last time.

"What's going on?" Mizuiro looked worried for his friends health, he of course saw nothing. He caught Keigo by the shoulder and shook him gently, "Keigo, calm down!"

Should she tell them what's going on? They knew about Ichigo's mission too, they had been with her when Urahara had told her after all.

"Is it one of those things that only you guys can see?" Mizuiro asked suddenly, his face solemn.

She started at the unexpected words but nodded anyway. How did he know about souls? Never had she explained any of the spiritual world to him, not even when the blond visored outside had explained it all to her. As far as she knew, even Keigo did not realize that the people he saw weren't human.

"Then you better go see what it wants then," Mizuiro smiled reasuringly and began to lead Keigo down the hallway. "I'll just take_ Mr. Asano_ to the infirmary." Tatsuki smiled as Keigo all but forgot about the floating kid and began to whine about the formality. When they were out of sight she sped off in the other direction, directly towards the outside courtyard from which Shinji floated twenty feet above.

Mizuiro was right, she had to see what he wanted.


End file.
